Last week I finished one class entirely (handed in a final paper) and now have three more to go. The good news is one paper isn’t due until rather late in the finals period. The bad news is that two final papers that are both length (approximately 25 pages for, 12-25 for the other) are [...]

The school year started off in such a way that my sleep and energy have not been going so well. My new learning assistant (LA) students have been full of questions and my Gk-12s have also brought up questions. Between both groups, there are 26 students. I have a better feel for Gk-12 but I’m [...]

I thoroughly enjoyed partaking in the training with the fellows and teachers; I am excited to see what kind of work they do this upcoming school year. Although I did not do much, I really enjoyed being there. It is a really lovely thing to see how dedicated teachers, grad students, and a university can [...]

I’m baking cookies to bring into the class I TAed this summer. Last semester, a classmate of mine mentioned that he brings in candy to his students, because it’s his way of showing that he cares and that he cares about them without actually saying that (it can come off corny if you say something [...]

This summer I’m working as a program manager for a GK-12 program. GK-12 places graduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students into K-12 classrooms. Being a program manager means I’m essentially admin. I plan, schedule, and ensure the train runs on time and with all the necessary equipment, so to speak. Starting a new [...]

Last week, my students did poster presentations on their teaching experiences. They all did amazing jobs on the presentations and sparked many good discussions. Towards the end of the poster presentation, they and other members of the audience began a discussion on the general chemistry class itself. A few of us agreed upon doing a [...]

The undergraduate teaching assistants received their reviews from their students. They were what I expected. Not because these teaching assistants are terribly or wunderkinds, but because the reviews were coming from a big cohort of students. From my experience, students give a mixed-bag of critique. While I agree there are bad instructors out there, sometimes [...]

This past week in school we’ve been talking about how much one should share with his/her students. We were discussing this more in the context of political and moral beliefs. It was very interesting, because there is no definitive answer on whether it’s appropriate. I think the most we all concluded was sharing isn’t necessarily [...]

Being a TA again is slightly strange. While I miss leading the class, the amount of work is nice. No lecture to prepare, assignments to create. Just grading. My advisor has also been good about allowing me to set the grading rubric, late policy, etc. I’ve TAed in situations that were very controlling, and they [...]

Part of my “service” for my fellowship this semester is to TA a class where undergraduate chemistry TAs are learning about education and how to teach. It is a very cool class that comes from the work of University of Colorado. In my experience, TAs do not get that much training to teach. You are [...]